The present invention relates to an ultrasonic percussion device intended more particularly, although not exclusively, for medical applications relating to treatment of body canals or morphological ducts, such as, for example, the destruction of atheromas inside arteries. Obviously, it goes without saying that the percussion device could be used for other applications, particularly industrial applications such as machining, polishing, unblocking of pipes, etc., without departing from the scope of the invention.
It is known that, for destroying atheromas, one of the techniques available to the practitioner consists in using ultrasonic percussion devices which generally comprise:
an ultrasonic wave generator, terminated by an unit transmitting the vibration generated; PA1 a wire, the near end of which is carried by said unit and the far end of which is set into percussive movement; and PA1 linking means for immobilizing the near end of said wire in said generator unit. PA1 a sleeve which is radially deformable in an elastic way, accommodating the near end of said wire and provided with a conical flared part; PA1 a bore provided in said transmission unit and into which said sleeve is inserted, the conical part of said sleeve coming into contact with a complementary conical wall formed in said bore; and PA1 a clamping element interacting by screwing with said unit and acting against said sleeve, so that, when the screw is tightened, the conical part of said sleeve is pressed against the conical wall of said bore causing, by radial deformation of said sleeve, clamping of the near end of said wire, until said clamping element comes into contact with a stop provided on said unit.
Thus, by means of the generator, the vibration generated is transmitted to the wire which is inserted by the practitioner into the body canal to be treated, and the far end of which cyclically pounds the atheroma to be destroyed.
As the preamble to the French patent 2 653 040 stresses, the major drawback of these devices relates to their linking means which do not provide maximum transmission of the vibration to the wire, by reason of its millimetric diameter and of the functional play which results therefrom. Thus, the invention described in the patent consists in remedying that by proposing linking means which comprise:
Although percussion devices equipped with these linking means give effective results as far as the treatment proper is concerned, that is to say to destruction of atheromas, it nevertheless proves to be awkward to use them as far as manipulation of them is concerned. In fact, on the one hand, it is necessary to screw the clamping element (a nut) tightly onto the said unit by means of attached keys, which is not appreciated by the practitioners. Moreover, jamming arises between the sleeve and the near end of the wire, which sometimes prevents them being manually dismantled, mainly because of surface defects and of the inevitable matting of the latter.